The State Department issued a little noticed statement on Saturday warning of an “imminent complex attack” on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, telling Americans to avoid the area around the embassy. “As of February 2015, militants are preparing an imminent complex attack against the U.S. Embassy compound in Kabul City, Afghanistan, from a location near Massoud Circle. The U.S. Embassy is taking this threat seriously and advises American citizens to avoid the area.” Massoud Circle was the location of a deadly suicide bomb attack last September claimed by the Taliban. ... As the Kabul Embassy staff prepares for an...

BREAKING: TALIBAN CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR MURDER OF THREE AMERICANS AT KABUL AIRPORT On Wednesday White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz argued that the Taliban is not a terrorist group, but instead an “armed insurgency.” On Thursday White House Spokesman Josh Earnest doubled-down on the idiocy. Earnest told reporters: “They have a different classification. They have a classification that does allow us to place financial concessions against them that have succeeded in limiting their capability. They’ve been effective. And that is different than an organization like Al-Qaeda that has much broader global aspiration to carry out acts of violence and...

Three American contractors were killed in an apparent insider attack in the Afghan capital Kabul, an Afghan air force official told Reuters news agency. "It is unclear yet why he shot these advisers and no one else was there to tell us the reason," the official said, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to give statements to the media. "An investigation has been opened." The international force in Afghanistan also confirmed the shooting took place on Thursday evening. A rise in so-called "insider attacks" in Afghanistan has eroded trust between Afghan and international troops in the...

Kabul - Cornered against a wall and with a steel hook pushed around his neck, the dog emits a savage howl in a desperate attempt to fight free, but poison will soon be forced into his mouth as Kabul's cull of strays claims another kill. About 17 600 dogs were poisoned last year by municipal workers in the Afghan capital in an effort to protect residents from disease and to control the rocketing population of canines that roam the city's streets and open ground. The method of killing is brutally effective. Teams of dog-catchers wearing orange suits use long steel...

RUSH: Now, there's a very upsetting story out of the Afghanistan war today. Headline: "United States Army Major General Killed by an Afghan Soldier -- A United States Army major general was shot and killed at close range on Tuesday by a man dressed as an Afghan soldier at a training academy on the outskirts of Kabul..." By the way, you might hear it pronounced "Kah-BOOL," but it isn't. It's "KAH-bull," K-a-b-u-l. "The officer was the highest-ranking member of the American military to die in hostilities in the Afghanistan war. The coalition official, who spoke on condition of anonymity and...

An Afghan soldier killed a U.S. general and wounded 14 coalition troops in a machinegun attack at a military training facility in Kabul, a top Western and senior Afghan official said on Tuesday. -snip- Seven other Americans and five British troops were among the wounded, according to the Afghan official. -snip- The gunman was using a light machinegun according to a U.S. official.

Two blasts struck a convoy carrying Afghan presidential hopeful Abdullah Abdullah after a campaign event Friday in Kabul, killing six civilians but leaving the candidate himself unharmed, officials said. The attack came just over a week before a runoff vote is to be held as Afghans choose a new leader to replace President Hamid Karzai. The Taleban have vowed to disrupt the balloting, although the first round on April 5 was relatively peaceful. Friday’s attack was the first to directly target one of the candidates in Kabul. Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the violence started with a suicide bombing...

The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan confirmed Thursday that three American doctors were killed by an Afghan security guard who opened fire at a Kabul hospital. The shooting at Cure International Hospital in the western part of the Afghan capital was the latest attack on foreign civilians in the city this year. Two others, including an American nurse, were wounded, according to Afghanistan's Health Ministry. "With great sadness we confirm that three Americans were killed in the attack at CURE Hospital," said a statement posted on the Embassy's Twitter page. "No other information will be released at this time." Afghanistan Minister...

KABUL, Afghanistan — As country director for the International Monetary Fund, Wabel Abdallah spent years navigating the shoals of scandal in Afghanistan’s financial sector. Vadim Nazarov, a top political officer at the United Nations, dedicated himself over the past nine years to looking for a peaceful solution to the Afghan war. Dhamender Singh Phangurha, a British candidate in the coming elections for the European Parliament, was here on a consulting contract. All three happened to be dining Friday at a popular Lebanese restaurant in downtown Kabul, where they were among 21 people killed in an attack for which the Taliban...

Link to video: Kabul restaurant attack: UN reaction to Taliban strike Two Britons and two Americans were among at least 21 people killed when a suicide bomber and gunmen attacked one of Kabul's most popular restaurants. The head of the International Monetary Fund's Afghanistan office and three UN staff of the were also killed in the attack on Friday evening, along with the Lebanese restaurant owner, several Afghans, and two Canadians. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in the well protected district in Kabul where most foreign workers live and work. A suicide bomber blew himself up at the...

At least 21 people, including foreigners, killed in suicide assault in heavily fortified district of Afghan capital. At least 21 people - 13 foreigners and eight Afghans - were killed in an apparent Taliban suicide bomb and gun attack on a restaurant in a heavily fortified area of Kabul. The assailants targeted Taverna du Liban, a Lebanese restaurant popular with expatriates and diplomats, in a neighbourhood of Kabul where many embassy buildings and offices of non-governmental organisations are located. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, strongly condemned Friday's attack through his spokesman, who said: "Such targeted attacks against civilians are completely...

Up to 15, mostly foreigners, killed in Kabul suicide attack Reuters IMF representative killed in Kabul, Fund says Reuters 'No possible justification' for Kabul restaurant attack: US AFP [$$] Kabul Bombing Targets Foreigners The Wall Street Journal UN staff, US academic among 21 dead in Kabul attac - A Taliban suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in the heart of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing 21 people including three United Nations staff and the International Monetary Fund's top representative in Afghanistan. Gunmen burst into the Lebanese restaurant spraying diners with bullets after the bomber blew himself...

At least 14 people -- including four U.N. personnel, an International Monetary Fund representative and a British contractor -- were killed Friday in a suicide bombing and shootout at a restaurant in the center of Kabul, authorities said. The suicide attacker's bomb exploded at the restaurant's gate about 7:30 p.m. Two armed men then entered the restaurant and started shooting, Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Mohammed Ayoub Salangi said. Afghan security forces killed the gunmen during a shootout, according to Salangi.

The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan says its compound was hit by indirect fire just before dawn on Christmas Day. It says no Americans were injured. […] The Taliban claimed they fired four rockets at the embassy on Wednesday and inflicted heavy casualties. But the insurgents often exaggerate their claims. …

If Mohammed Ibrahim Caravan smells fear about Afghanistan's future, he doesn't show it. He strolls around like a country squire in the glittering new gated community he helped build, dressed in a spotless white shalwar kameez tunic, stylish shades and polished wingtips. "Worried?" the 28-year-old asked. "Hah — not me. I'm confident in the future. If you don't invest in your own country, who will?" Caravan's company is plunging $160 million into the family-run Saleem Caravan City, with its rows of salmon-colored villas with balconies and rose gardens, like some ersatz Miami Beach condo community. He's moved his family into...

Phyllis Chesler is a psychologist and academic whose writings we have quoted from time to time over the years. Ms. Chesler has always had a rather skeptical attitude toward Islam, in particular with regard to its treatment of women. Now we know why: Chesler has published a new book titled An American Bride In Kabul. You can read an excerpt from An American Bride in the New York Post. Chesler’s horrifying story begins in 1959 when, as an 18-year-old college student, she meets and falls in love with an older, wealthy and cosmopolitan Afghan man. Two years later, they agree...

Fifty years ago this week, Duke Ellington and his band played in a concert he later called one of the most memorable of his life. The performance was in Kabul, in Afghanistan, and even though Ellington was at the height of his fame, almost all traces of it have been lost. For the organiser, Faiz Khairzada, and hundreds of Afghans in the audience, the concert was a high point of the early 1960s. "It was very exciting for me to have him in Kabul," says Khairzada, then head of Afghanistan's cultural affairs organisation. It was he who met Ellington at...

In wake of Benghazi attack, internal probe finds Afghanistan posts vulnerable. U.S. diplomatic facilities in Afghanistan have serious security lapses that pose “unnecessary risk to staff,” including poor emergency preparedness and inadequate protections that might allow classified materials to fall into the hands of attacking enemies, according to an internal report that raises fresh questions about the State Department’s commitment to safety in the aftermath of the Benghazi tragedy. The confidential State Department inspector general’s report, obtained by The Washington Times under the Freedom of Information Act, directly criticizes the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security for failing to perform a...

KABUL, Afghanistan Large explosions are being heard coming from the military side of Kabul international airport, which houses a NATO headquarters. The explosions began about 4:30 a.m. Monday from the direction of the military headquarters.

A suicide car bomb targeted a foreign military convoy in Kabul on Thursday, killing 15 people including five Americans in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital for nearly a year. The powerful explosion, which struck at 8:00am (local time) in the Shah Shaheed south-eastern residential district, also injured about 40 passers-by including many children going to school, officials said. Nine Afghans including two children died, along with two US soldiers and four NATO-contracted civilians who were travelling through the city's busy rush-hour traffic. A Western military source in Kabul said the two soldiers and three of the contractors were...

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.N. whistleblower who won his case but received only 2 percent of the $2.2 million he sought in damages and costs is asking the U.S. government to withhold 15 percent of its payments to the United Nations. James Wasserstrom alleged corruption involving senior officials in the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Kosovo in 2007. He is now an anti-corruption adviser at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Wasserstrom told a news conference Monday that he was sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and key lawmakers asking that they implement a federal law requiring...

... new details about how a small group of men profited from fraudulent loans. It called out local authorities for succumbing to political pressure and the international community for not doing enough to stave off the catastrophe which led to a near-complete meltdown of Afghanistan’s banking system in 2010. The report, partly compiled from the results of a nine-month-long audit conducted by Kroll, a global investigations firm, said that the crisis was brought on by a well-hidden Ponzi scheme. More than 92% of the bank’s loan book, or $861 million, was extended to 19 related individuals and businesses, which ultimately...

Kabul Bank became Afghanistan’s largest financial institution by offering the promise of modern banking to people who had never had a saving or checking account. What it really dealt in was modern theft: “From its very beginning,” according to a confidential forensic audit of Kabul Bank, “the bank was a well-concealed Ponzi scheme.” Afghan and American officials had for years promoted Kabul Bank as a prime example of how Western-style banking was transforming a war-ravaged economy. But the audit, prepared this year for Afghanistan’s central bank by the Kroll investigative firm, gives new details of how the bank instead was...

From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 15, 2012 – International Security Assistance Force officials are providing additional details about the Sept. 14 attack on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan’s Helmand province in which two coalition service members were killed when insurgents attacked the base’s airfield. Because it is still early in the investigation of this attack, information is subject to change as new details become available, officials said. The attack commenced just after 10 p.m., officials said, when approximately 15 insurgents executed a well-coordinated attack against the airfield on Camp Bastion. The insurgents, organized...

"Hurry hurry hurry. We can destroy the enemy. Advance." "Hit hit hit the Taliban." "Hit him hit him hit him. Fire, fire." "We're arriving in Khalakhan." "Take care about the troops." "The Taliban are surrendering." "Bring them to me." "One hundred of them are coming to you." "El Ham captured a pickup with their weapons." These were the voices on the radio of the Northern Alliance commanders we have been visiting for weeks. Several other journalists and I were standing with some Afghan soldiers on the roof of a command post--a mud house with a tank's turret and gun jutting ...

WASHINGTON — When the U.S. State Department announced this week that it finally is going to designate the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization, it was a nonevent for most of our countrymen. That's because few Americans know how deadly the organization is. For that we can thank those at Foggy Bottom who are wedded to the naive hope of a near-term "diplomatic breakthrough" in Afghanistan. Couple that misguided belief with the Obama administration's self-deception that the radical Islamic jihad against the West ended with the demise of Osama bin Laden and it's understandable why the Haqqani network...

A Pakistani protester shout slogans at an anti-American rally to condemn the U.S. for accusing the country's most powerful intelligence agency of supporting extremist attacks against American targets in Afghanistan, in Multan, Pakistan, Friday, Sept 23, 2011. The top U.S. military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, accused the Haqqani network Thursday of staging an attack against the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. He claimed the Pakistani spy agency, the ISI, helped the group carry out the two attacks. KABUL, Afghanistan -- Pakistani military units fired shots at American and Afghan government troops along the Afghanistan border several times over the past...

Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan: Though there's been a bit of damage to the C-17 regularly used by General Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff -who was thankfully off sleeping in his quarters at the time of today's pre-dawn, two-rocket volley- was not hurt. No fatalities reported either, but two ground crew were injured and -of course- the Taliban are suspected, who else.Periodic shelling of Bagram -which is situated north of Kabul- has been known to occur, though it is rare for them to hit anything of value. But General Dempsey was in town for a pow-wow...

Explanation: What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend political boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, planned on dancing, and filmed the result. The above video, the latest in a series of similar videos, is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious -- few people are able to watch the above video without...

A video showing the public execution of a 22-year-old woman accused of adultery in Afghanistan has been condemned by the government as un-Islamic and inhuman. The video shows her being shot repeatedly in the back in front of a crowd of men in Qol village in Parwan province just north of the capital Kabul. The woman, named as Najiba, was married to a member of a Taliban militant group and was accused of adultery with a Taliban commander, said Roshna Khalid, a Parwan provincial spokeswoman, yesterday. "Within one hour they decided that she was guilty and sentenced her to death....

President Barack Obama left Afghanistan on Wednesday, targeting a foreigners' housing compound with a suicide car bomb and militants disguised as women in an assault that killed at least seven people. It was the second major assault in Kabul in less than three weeks and highlighted the Taliban's continued ability to strike in the heavily guarded capital even when security had been tightened for Obama's visit and Wednesday's anniversary of the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan. Obama arrived at Bagram Air Field late Tuesday, then traveled to Kabul by helicopter for a meeting with President...

KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide car bomber and Taliban militants disguised in burqas attacked a compound housing hundreds of foreigners in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, killing seven people, officials and witnesses said. The Taliban said the attack was a response to President Barack Obama's surprise visit just hours earlier. At least 17 people were also wounded in the assault, most of them Afghan children on their way to school, the Interior Ministry said. The second major assault in Kabul in less than three weeks, the attack highlights the Taliban's continued ability to strike in the heavily guarded capital even...

President Obama has arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan, on a surprise trip to sign a strategic agreement with Afghanistan. He will address the nation at 7:30 p.m. EDT from Bagram Air Base on Tuesday evening. In going to Afghanistan on the ninth anniversary of the most notorious example of premature presidential gloating, Obama risks turning the high point of his presidency into a political weapon for his enemies. But it will be how the president conducts himself while in the war zone that will determine if this trip is lumped in with George W. Bush's donning of a flight suit and...

KABUL, May 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday for an unannounced visit, Afghan officials said. During his trip here, the U.S. president is expected to sign a strategic agreement with Afghanistan, unnamed Afghan government officials were quoted as saying by local TV channels.

Taliban Launches Largest Attack On Kabul In 11 Years Government areas in Kabul and several other key locations in Afghanistan rocked by gunfire and explosions Jon Boone Emma Graham Harrison in Kabul 15 April 2012 10.44 EDT In a brazen demonstration of its ability to hit some of the best defended targets in Kabul, the Taliban mounted its largest ever co-ordinated attack in 11 years of resistance to Afghanistan's post-2001 rulers. Dozens of fighters launched gun, rocket and suicide attacks on embassies, Nato bases, parliament and government buildings in the capital, as well as Nato targets in three eastern provinces,...

KABUL (Reuters) - Gunmen launched multiple attacks in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, assaulting Western embassies in the heavily guarded, central diplomatic area and at the parliament in the west. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the assault, one of the most serious on the capital since U.S.-backed Afghan forces removed the group from power in 2001.

The Taliban staged multiple and sustained attacks across Kabul and eastern Afghanistan on Sunday hitting the heavily secured diplomatic neighborhood of Kabul and the Parliament area as well as Afghan government installations in at least two provinces. A NATO spokesman confirmed multiple attacks had occurred across Kabul, potentially in as many as seven locations.

KABUL, Afghanistan – Eight NATO service members and a contractor are dead after an Afghan military pilot opened fire on the foreign troops following a dispute at the airport in Kabul. Wednesday's shooting was the deadliest incident in which a member of the Afghan security forces turned against coalition forces.

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- At least 13 U.S. troops were killed in Kabul on Saturday when a suicide bomber struck a vehicle in a military convoy, a U.S. military official said. The official emphasized these are first reports of the incident and details are continuing to unfold. The attack severely damaged one of its vehicles, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. There were Afghan and international casualties, but the exact numbers are unavailable, said Master Sgt. Christopher DeWitt, a spokesman for ISAF.Hasmat Stanikzai, spokesman for Kabul's police chief, said two students, a civilian on a motorbike and...

There are few formal street names or house numbers in Kabul - so just how does a postman deliver the mail? For the postmen of Kabul, navigating the maze of the city is a daunting task. It is a city of more than four million people and one in which hundreds of homes and streets are being developed every year. There are few street names and house numbers, and the Central Post Office has yet to introduce a full postal code system. There is often little information to work with So how does a letter find its way to the...

Gunfire, Possible Explosion at Kabul Building Believed to House CIA Gunfire and a possible explosion Sunday night rattled the building believed to house the CIA office in Kabul. It wasn’t clear if the incident took place inside the building or just outside the entrance. At least one helicopter has landed outside the building, according to local journalists. The building is in the single most secure part of Kabul and used to be known as the Arianna Hotel until 2002, when it was believed to have been taken over by the CIA. It is just a few feet from one of...

A complicated attack involving multiple gunmen and apparent suicide bombers was underway in the heart of the Afghan capital Tuesday morning, and it appeared to be focused near the U.S. Embassy. CBS News staff in Kabul reported hearing heavy gunfire and at least seven explosions, some of them large. The situation was described as "chaotic", and it remained unclear how many people were wounded. A Taliban spokesman claimed there were several militants inside at least one building near the embassy district in Kabul, and that the targets of the attack were Afghan government ministries and the intelligence services. The Taliban's...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Insurgents fired rockets and assault rifles in the direction of the U.S. Embassy, NATO headquarters and other official buildings Tuesday as gunfire and explosions rocked the heart of the Afghan capital. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The surge of violence was a stark reminder of the instability that continues to plague Afghanistan nearly a decade after the U.S. invasion that ousted the Taliban in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. Police said the gunmen were firing from a tall office building that is under construction at Kabul's Abdul...

NATO forces backed by helicopters were battling Friday with insurgents who killed at least 10 people, including a foreign soldier, in an assault on a British cultural center in the Afghan capital. At least five blasts, claimed by the Taliban, rocked the British Council offices in Kabul from the early hours of the morning, during a public holiday marking Afghanistan's independence from Britain in 1919. -excerpt- One soldier said he thought that the Britons inside the compound took refuge in a safe room, The (London) Times reported.

KABUL — Veteran diplomat Ryan C. Crocker can handle Islamist insurgencies, hostile heads of state and management of some of the world’s largest embassies. But what’s he going to do about the cats? The new leader of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul has probably already walked past (and possibly petted?) Gordo, Freckles, Dusty, Ferdinand and Maria Teresa or any of the other 25 to 30 felines that populate the downtown diplomatic campus. But in case he has not been briefed on the bizarre battle over their fate (kill them! save them! fly them to Berkeley!), here are the basics. Somewhere...

Until last week, Solaiman Faizi's biggest problems were making sure that guests at his newly opened hotel didn't burn the place down with their small propane stoves or overload the tenuous power supply. But after an unpleasant encounter with post-Taliban vengeance and justice, Faizi isn't so sure that he should have left New Jersey to help reopen his family's hotel in one of the world's most treacherous cities. One of his brothers is stewing in Kabul's central jail, recovering from a beating by soldiers. Another brother just got out of the hospital, where he says he was treated for a...